How Chuck’s Original Plan Changed (& Why Kayla Hart Was Cut)

At the beginning, NBC had a different plan was in place for Chuck, and it involved the inclusion of a character named Kayla Hart (Natalie Martinez). Kayla Hart she was ultimately cut from the show prior to production, however, and Kayla never appeared in a single episode. Who was this mysterious character?

Season 1 of the NBC series centered on Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), a seemingly ordinary computer nerd who had thousands of top-secret government files downloaded into his brain. Assigned to protect him were CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and the NSA’s John Casey (Adam Baldwin). Chuck was forced to work with government on secret missions, all the while trying to keep his spy life separate from his work and his personal life. Chuck had no choice but to lie to his best friend, Morgan (Joshua Gomez), and his sister, Ellie (Sarah Lancaster). During this time, Chuck’s life was further complicated by his growing romantic feelings for Sarah.

If NBC had stuck to its original plan for Chuck, the situation would have been even more complex. When the show was in pre-production, actress Natalie Martinez was cast as a character named Kayla Hart, a young woman who lived in the same apartment building as Chuck, his sister, and Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin). She worked at a nightclub and would have served as a love interest for Chuck, at least in season 1. An early draft of the script for the pilot episode reveals that Chuck would have had a romantic interest in Kayla to start the series, but he wouldn’t have acted on his feelings yet.

This plan for the show never happened, as Kayla was cut from the story. A second love interest for Chuck didn’t actually enter the picture until midway through season 1 when Chuck met Lou (Rachel Bilson), though this only consisted of a two-episode storyline. Chuck co-creators and showrunners Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz have talked about the decision to cut Kayla from the show on an episode commentary in the past. Apparently, it wouldn’t have felt believable for both Sarah and Kayla to be in love with Chuck, plus a love triangle between them would have made the show’s story too complicated.

So, how important would Kayla have been to the show? Natalie Martinez was included in promotional images of the Chuck cast, which show her posing with other season regulars. Since all the characters pictured in the photos are main characters, it appears that Kayla too would have been a series regular. It could be that the show’s plan all along was to focus on Chuck’s romance with Sarah, and if so, the show may have moved on from Kayla eventually. Regardless, cutting Kayla out of the story was most likely the right move. Though Chuck did have different love interests on the show for brief periods of time, his relationship with Sarah was always at the heart of the show, and Kayla Hart would have distracted from that.

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